This is just one of the quotes that will accompany 311 portraits of Toronto community figures that have helped shape this city as part of Tomori Nagamoto s installation, Life Lessons. A collection of hand-drawn portraits depicting people accompanied by their personal quotes from all across the GTA, ranging from community innovators, local politicians, company presidents, festival organizers, critics, writers, artists, musicians, curators, local business owners and students.

Tomori Nagamoto is a Japanese-born visual artist based in Toronto. He was in Tokyo in March of 2011, when the earthquake hit — six minutes that would change his life, and his art, forever. The subsequent tsunami never hit Tokyo, but Tomori lost friends and relatives in other hard- hit parts of Japan. They re among some 3,300 dead whose bodies are still missing, a year after the disaster that killed nearly 16,000 people and left about 325,000 homeless. After 3/11 Tomori began documenting to preserve our contemporary condition with the realization that our temporal life is limited on this planet. Life Lessons is a reflection of people and their thoughts during a specific time period, attempting to capture these nuances, and the life and times of Toronto in the year 2012.

Acknowledgments to the City of Toronto as the producers of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, Sony, ArtBarrage, FUNDING matters Inc., the Cabbagetown Business Improvement Area (BIA) and Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre.